Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)(60)

She remained quiet, but her tears said it all. I wasn’t telling her so she’d pity me or feel sorry for me. That was the last thing I wanted. I needed her to know, so if Vault ever took her, she’d understand what type of people they were.

“It’s why they start us so young, fewer attachments, easier to break and condition us. But my sister… she kept breaking rules. Kept trying to help other kids. When she was about fourteen, she helped a kid escape. I don’t know how she did it, but she was taken away and none of us saw her for a long time. That’s when we were moved to another place. I guess they were afraid the kid who escaped would tell the authorities.”

“Oh, God, Kai.”

“When she came back… I don’t know why, but she looked okay and she began to learn how to fight like the rest of us. She was compliant. But a few years ago, she went on a mission and didn’t come back.” I sighed, closing my eyes for a second as I thought about her. “They found her. Brought her back and she’s been imprisoned ever since.”

“You don’t escape them, London. You do what you have to in order to survive. You learn to play their game by your rules.”

“Like now.”

“Yeah, baby. Like now. You’re an attachment and they would end it if they knew you were with me.” I cupped her chin and tilted her face to look at me. “If they get to you….” Fuck. I didn’t know if I’d be able to save her. Maybe I had lied to her because Vault was the one place I may never be able to save her from.

“How…? God, Kai, how could your mother do that?”

“I may have her tainted blood running through me, but she isn’t a mother. I call her that because it’s my game. My card to play, so she feels comfort in thinking I’m her loyal son.”

“Are you? Loyal?” she asked quietly.

“I have a house they don’t know about and I have the daughter of the man who supplies them with a drug hidden in it.”

I ran my hand down her spine until it rested on the cusp of her ass. “London, hope is dangerous there. They know how to erase every part of you until you’re nothing. And now… the drug your father made for them will only make it easier because they will use men already trained to kill.” I paused. “Like Georgie’s brother.”

She frowned. “Georgie? Deck and Georgie. That Georgie? I don’t understand.”

I brought her in closer and I told her everything. How Georgie became Chaos, about Tanner getting close to Connor so he and Georgie would trust Tanner. I revealed more than I had to anyone. I did it not to scare her. It was for the opposite reason, because fear came from the unknown. I did it so she could be prepared for anything. To give her power. And to give her what I’d never given anyone, even Ernie—my complete trust.

“Connor was the first to be tested with the drug. I don’t know the particulars as anything involving Connor was kept confidential, but he was in an elite task force—JTF2—when he was taken. He had all the skills necessary without the years of training children. But the difference between persuading children to do what you want and someone like Connor, he won’t mold easily. And some men will never break.”

“The drug.” I nodded. “But my father… why would he do that?”

“Your father would do anything to protect you.” There was no easy way to tell her what was next, but it was important she knew that her father did what he had to. “The fire you were in… I suspect it was Vault.”

She gasped. “But you’re Vault. You set the fire?”

“Fuck, no. But Vault knew your mother died in an accidental fire and then for you to almost die in one… I don’t believe in coincidences, London.”

“But if they wanted to kill me, why wouldn’t they tell you. You saved me from the fire.”

“I don’t kill kids.”

“I was eighteen.”

“True, and, baby, you were so f*ckin’ beautiful.” I leaned over and kissed her forehead, lips, lingering as I closed my eyes, wanting to take the hurt away, but knowing she needed to hear this. “Your father was delaying. He didn’t want to continue making the drug, but then with the fire… he had no choice, London.”

I gave her time to accept what I’d told her. To try and make sense of it. Her hand stroked back and forth absently over my abdomen. She didn’t sob or break down, but quietly took in what I told her.

Her cheek glided against my chest as she looked up at me. “Mexico was them, wasn’t it? Another threat to my father?”

“Yes. And no.” I stroked my thumb over her lower lip, still swollen from my kisses. “They had you kidnapped and taken to Mexico, and it was a threat to your father. But it was meant to be more of a threat to me.”

She sat up, her body half-leaning over me. “What?”

“I spent several nights with you, but not in the way they wanted.”

She reached up and cupped the side of my face when I fell silent. “Oh, my God, you were supposed to hurt me.”

“Yes.”

Her hand flinched on my abdomen. “And instead you were going to walk away. Let me go.”

“Yes.”

“But my father—”

“Would’ve got the extra time he needed regardless.”